don - Rasheed has had relatively few off court offenses, the only notable one I can recall is mar1juana possession. Randolph has received a DUI, underage drinking, driving under the influence of mar1juana, punched out Ruben Patterson, was with his brother when his brother shot someone at a nightclub. Here's a quote from his high school coach on him: Equally important imo, Randolph is he doesn't fit the role of a guy who can spread the floor for us. He's a very effective post player, but that's not what we need right now. Sooner- Hypothetically, Randolph's BYC expires July 1. It's common for teams to agree to terms on a deal on draft day that won't be consummated until after the July Moratorium.
Rasheed was always an above average defender who could be used as a utility player. Didn't need to dominate the ball to be effective (like Randolph). He just isn't a good fit for what this team needs alongside Yao. Randolph also has one of the worst contracts in the league, putting that next to a maxed out Yao and TMac handicaps Houston down the road.
I would much rather have Miles than Swift. Swift has absolutely no hoops IQ whatsoever and basically looks like he is sleepwalking through most games. Miles has shown that he at least has some desire and passion to elevate his game.
Zach Randolf and Darius Miles are two of the WORST profesional basketball players in the league. They are big leauge selfish with no heart, basketball sense, or any concept of necessary team play. JCG needs men who can contribute to his success, not spoiled, rich little boys who will get him fired.
No it isnt. And I am not even talking about perosnality, but more about his skillset. The last thing this team needs is someone to clog the lane next to Yao. Enough with all of this "Yao needs a bruiser down there to protect the paint" thinking! Over and done with! Yao is THERE. The lightbulb has come on. HE is the dominating force down there. We need a 4 man that can SPACE the floor, hit a medium range shot and in the best of all possible worlds block some shots. The NBA game is evolving. Other than having a dominant C, the low post players now all can MOVE around, hit the shot, space the floor for cutters, drivers, PGs etc.
The only player i would think that will be benificial is Travis Outlaw. He's got great hands and good defender and will be a good addition to these team.
hi in another article, Nate McMillan said that he wants veterans/experience, and that the blazers could offer their picks to have that. do you think we have something in our roster that we could send'em to have their #30th and #31st picks ? would he take Howard ? he got XP, and some kind of leadership the young blazers need ... but i dont think it would work with the salary, portland is over the cap right ???
^^^^^^^^ is a pippe dream post. back to reality. can we be realistic for once? . anyhow, the only realistic offers we can make is or will be excluding our 8th pick. we gotta start banking on the future.
I agree, he is a good defender and is very atheletic. can play anywhere from the 2 spot to the 4 spot. hwever the 8th pick is not for negotiation.
Not true. He doesn't have 3 pt range, but his overall jumpshooting percentage is very good, he hits the midrange stuff at a very high level, and makes shots in catch and shoot situations at a very respectable clip. Travis Outlaw shot: Overall jump shooter at 41.33% (81/196) Medium range jumpers (17 ft to inside the 3 point line) at 48.06% (62/129) Catch and shoot when unguarded at 46.3% (25/54) Catch and shoot when guarded at 39.71% (27/68) Overall Catch at shoot at 42.62% (52/122) All of these being good to very good against the league average. All stats courtesy of: http://www.mysynergysports.com
Yeah, http://www.mysynergysports.com was an amazing find that popped up on another board. It's new and they're doing a test free trial offer for the rest of the playoffs. And depending on how much they'll charge for a subscription when they go live next year, I might just get it.
And he is shooting 30% from inside 17 feet, 26% from 3 point land, and 69% from the FT line. So apparently, he's missing all his layups and dunks?????? Spot Up (36.41% of his offense) Average, NBA% 41, PPP 0.79 (FG 47/125 37.6% 40%a) 37.6% spot up shooter. We already got that. He can't shoot.
Spot up refers to any drives, pullups, as well as jump shots that was originally initated by spotting up on the perimeter. And after watching a lot of these breakdowns, a lot of times there's not a whole lot of difference between "Spot ups" and "One-on-ones" We can both play selective stat pulling, but the one that essentially says: Seems to dump some water on your blanket statement that he can't shoot. And seeing as you are Darius Miles' biggest proponent on this board, why don't you take a look his profile. 53% from the line and 34.46% as a jump shooter. I don't see how Outlaw gets the "He can't shoot" treatment, while Miles gets the "He needs a change in scenary, so lets take his bad attitude, long ass contract, and alcohol/mar1juana episodes". I'm not saying that Outlaw is that great of an offensive option (He settles for jumpers way too much, and gets trapped into taking some bad shots instead of aggressively attacking the rim). But looking at all the footage and breaking down all of the different statistics, I feel that giving a simplistic argument that "He can't shoot" is just offbase. And to get back to the point of this topic, Outlaw isn't anywhere near worth our #8 pick, but he could be a piece, along with other pieces that can add up to the value of a top ten pick.
The blazers are one of the only teams with more junk on their roster then houston. I would much rather have sheldon williams, rodney carney, brandon roy, or jj redick at a rookie salary then either randolph or miles at their pay. Telfair cant shoot at all so why bring him to this team. This is the first draft since Yao that people are excited about, so keep the pick.
I will freely admit Miles sucked it up last year. He was horrible, possible the worst player in the NBA. And he is not a 3 point shooter. So, why didn't Outlaw get the minutes instead of Miles??? Outlaw could only get 16 mpg on the worst team in the league playing essentially the same position as Miles. Travis is just another developing, athletic kid. He may learn to shoot and he may not. He has not proven that he can shoot though. I tend to think that a player when they come into the league give some indication of their abilities early and then they improve on those basic skills with good coaching and work ethic. Travis has great athleticism and I believe could be coached to be a shut down defender. But he's a slasher/dunker/transition player offensively. He cannot shoot the jump shot. He's been in the league 3 years. His shooting may improve somewhat but he will never be an efficient jump shooter in my opinion. He's a 39% jump shooter and a 36% spot up shooter. He can't shoot. Besides, just watch some game film. Statistics don't tell the whole story. When you watch Travis, you see a skywalker slasher who can't hit the jumper. We don't need that starting at the 2 guard. Dude, he could not get minutes on Portland's team. Now, I wouldn't mind having him on the team, in a backup, off the bench, 2nd unit role, kinda like a Devin Brown But not as a floor spreader, space creator 3rd offensive option. The deal with Miles is simply this. It is not about getting Miles as much as it is getting rid of Juwan. Miles is one of the few players we could probably trade Juwan for. And Miles, despite his extreme negative attitude, has shown he can play in this league at a very high level. What is keeping Miles down is his ATTITUDE. We all agree on that. The thing about attitude is a player CAN change it and can change it in very short course. He doesn't have to spend 6 hours in the gym, 5 days a week for 2 years to change his attitude. He can change his attitude almost like flipping a switch IF he chooses to do so. And a Miles with an attitude adjustment is much much much better for this team than Juwan is. And a Miles with a bad attitude is not any worse for this team than having Juwan out there getting killed every night by the opponent's big men. Go to 82 games.com if you want to chase statistics and look at Yao's stats in combination with every player on the team. Look at Juwan's statistic with every player on the team. You will see that the Yao Juwan combination is just terrible. He is not the right fit, everybody knows it. Everybody knows we need something else at the 4 and almost ANYTHING at this point would be better than Juwan, including little Chuckie and Stro. That's why I see a Juwan-Miles trade as a no brainer for us if we could pull it off. Worst case scenario is Miles burns out. Big deal. At least we don't have Juwan chewing minutes, we've just got Miles chewing payroll. I'd rather have Miles chewing up payroll than Juwan chewing up minutes and payroll. So, getting Miles isn't about what else we can get at the 2 guard. Do you realistically think we could trade Juwan for anything better and if so, what is it? Could we trade Juwan for a starting 2 guard that would be the 3rd option we need? Now, the upside possibility is this. Miles comes here and changes his attitude under Van Gundy, realizes that the team is 111 and plays his role, which is to say, lock down the perimeter, run the floor, and play the 3 offensively, and create mismatches all over the floor because no team has two athletic 6'9" perimeter wing players that could match up with both he and McGrady on the floor together. He could also be a great weapon when it comes to defending small lineups by being able to play the 4 and lock down on guys like Marion. Attitude switches happen ALL the TIME in this league, witness McGrady, VC, and Rasheed just to name a few. When Rasheed was on the market, most Rocket fans here were hissing at the thought of him coming here to play. They didn't want him because he was such a jerk up there in Portland. I was crossing my fingers, hoping we would get him. He would have pushed us to the top of the West overnight. Miles may bust out. We understand the risk going in to a deal for him. My point is and has always been, if he busts out, it is not any worse than where we are right now with Juwan playing 30 mpg. And the upside possibilities are much higher than the downside consequences.
I guess I hadn't thought about it before, but one reason that Juwan and Yao are incompatible is because of Juwan's shooting mechanics. His shot is so shallow that the vast majority of misses (which are attempted from the top of the key) are going to ricochet especially far away from the basket and over Yao's head. We all know that Yao can't react quickly to rebounds that come off the rim quickly. Since they are flying out toward the 3 point line at a high rate of speed, any defensive rebounds allow the opposition to get out on the fast break before Yao can even get up to jogging speed. Basically, the nature of Juwan's jumpshot plays on Yao's weaknesses: reacting quickly to long rebounds, and fast break defense.
Look, Yao's only weakness is a lack of speed. Juwan's biggest weakness is a lack of speed. Teams exploit them when they are on the floor together, plain and simple. Juwan gets ran through and jumped over and spread too thin defensively, and offensively, he doesn't have enough range to create enough space and he cannot slash to the basket for the higher percentage shots. Juwan and Yao playing together is a terrible combination.
